Our Response to Baseline Assessment

This is our initial response to the March 2014 announcement on baseline assessment. You can see more on our evidence page. We are now working with an alliance of early years organisations to oppose baseline testing going ahead. The NUT formally adopted the aims of the campaign during its spring conference.

'The Save Childhood Movement is opposed to standardised assessment of children in England at the start of the reception year, when many children are only four years old'.

In our opinion any meaningful assessment for this age-group must be:

holistic - and acknowledge that children have profoundly different life experiences and developmental capacities at this stage

observation-based and contextual - with a focus on positive learning dispositions, rather than a test of knowledge

developmentally appropriate - with a clear understanding that there may be as much as an 11 months age difference between children

formative – with an avoidance of simplistic judgements or labels that might cause anxiety to either children or parents

consistent – ensuring that any comparisons lead to improved understanding and practice

developmentally significant - assessing abilities which are proven to predict later development, such as self-regulation, rather than those that don't, such as early literacy and numeracy

Neil Leitch's response to the government's baseline assessment criteria. Neil is currently also acting as spokesperson for the new alliance.

29th May 2014

“The publication of these criteria has only served to heighten our concerns about the introduction of a reception baseline. The criteria clearly state the purpose of these assessments is to ‘assess school effectiveness’, rather than to ensure that the learning and development requirements of each individual child are met. Once again, the needs of the child have been completely overlooked.

“The current EYFS Profile is a broad-based assessment which covers all areas of learning and development and is based on a process of ongoing observation. In contrast, the new baseline assessments are to be focussed almost exclusively on language, literacy and mathematics. While these are of course vital early skills, we find it very concerning that no reference has been made to any other areas of learning and development, such as personal, social and emotional development or physical development. The Early Years Foundation Stage is still statutory in reception and as such, any assessments that take place during this time should ensure that practitioners are adopting a holistic and well-rounded approach to learning.

“We are also extremely concerned by the reference to the assessments potentially being ‘on-screen or on paper’. This would suggest that these ‘assessments’ will, in reality, be more like formal tests. Not only would such an approach provide an unreliable snapshot of a child’s progress at best, it is also completely inappropriate for children of such a young age.”

Nursery World 27th March 2014Children's assessments in early years and primary

The existing statutory two-year-old progress check undertaken in early years settings

A short reception baseline that will sit within the assessments that teachers make of children during Reception

A phonics check near the end of Year 1

A teacher assessment at the end of Key Stage 1 in maths, reading and writing, informed by pupils' scores in externally-set but internally-marked tests (writing will be partly informed by the grammar, punctuation and spelling test); and teacher assessment of speaking and listening and science

National tests at the end of Key Stage 2 in: maths, reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and a teacher assessment of mathematics, reading, writing, and science.

A summary of consultation responses shows that 51 per cent were against introducing a baseline check at the start of Reception, while 34 per cent were in favour and 16 per cent not sure. Only 19 per cent thought that the baseline check should be optional. The majority of respondents (73 per cent) said that schools shouldn't be able to choose from a range of commercially-available assessments, with only 15 per cent in agreement with this.

We have tried to ensure that all the information on this site is as accurate as possible. Please let us know if you spot any errors.